A New York man accused of helping to lead a multi-state check fraud scheme has pleaded guilty, according to a court record filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
Nazaly Mason Smith, 33, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud for the scheme that took place between May 2022 and December 2023 in eastern Michigan “and elsewhere,” according to the plea agreement.
Smith recruited and trained individuals, including a woman who pleaded guilty and three others charged in the scheme, to enter banks and open accounts in the names of stolen check victims, the court document said.
“To accomplish this, defendant [Smith] provided his co-conspirators with fake identification documents, along with the real personal identifiable information (PII) of the stolen check victims,” the plea agreement said.
The individuals Smith trained would…
Cyber fraud uses technology as the primary weapon. It is highly scalable and can be conducted from anywhere in the world.
- Phishing/Smishing/Vishing: Using deceptive emails (phishing), text messages (smishing), or phone calls (vishing) to trick victims into clicking malicious links or revealing sensitive data.
- Business Email Compromise (BEC): A high-value scam where a criminal impersonates a CEO or high-level executive via a “spoofed” email address to trick a staff member into making an urgent, unauthorized wire transfer.